


As the World Falls Down

by tjmystic



Series: Birthday Fics [10]
Category: Labyrinth (1986), Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-12
Updated: 2013-02-12
Packaged: 2017-11-29 01:00:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/680890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjmystic/pseuds/tjmystic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Labyrinth AU –“ It’s a place you put people to forget about them…” </p>
<p>Rumplestiltskin goes to the Goblin King for help in forgetting about Belle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As the World Falls Down

As the World Falls Down  
Birthday Fic #10

Rating: PG 

anon: Labyrinth AU –“ It’s a place you put people to forget about them…” 

Author’s Note: Sorry that this one is so short - I had so many ideas for it, but the more I wrote, the less good it got. Ah well *shrugs*. 

Oh, and I actually have a reason for posting this one today - it’s my cousin’s birthday today, and Labyrinth is his favorite movie. Happy 19th my baby kangaroo!

 

No one could blame her for walking away from him. He protected her, cared for her, kept her… but he could never allow himself to inject love into that mix. Not when he’d promised his Bae, promised the world, that he would never love anyone else ever again. 

But they could most certainly blame her for coming back. And they could blame her for trying to break his curse. For breaking his heart. Regina’s puppet or not, it didn’t matter - she could never love him, and he could never again give himself the chance to believe she could. 

He considered just letting her go. Let her walk away from him again, let her see the coldness in his soul. But foolish thing that she was, he knew that she’d come back. She’d learn magic from his former apprentice in hopes that she could slay the beast with spells. She’d try to find his dagger to gut him with. She’d lie to him, cheat and steal. Or even worse, she’d convince herself that she really did love him. And he couldn’t let that stand. 

Instead, he sent his little Hatter friend on a trip to the Goblin Kingdom. 

“And you’re sure this will work?” Rumplestiltskin asked solemnly, purposely pointed away from his tower window. If he looked down, he’d see his beautiful Belle skirting in and out of the gigantic maze below. 

Jareth casually waved his hand, and Rumple could hear the labyrinth shifting behind him, changing shape to keep the lovely girl from finding her way out. He inwardly thanked the Goblin King for his generosity.

“Not if you intend on keeping her in the Labyrinth itself,” he drawled, spinning three glittery glass orbs between his fingers. He looked perfectly at ease, laid out sideways on the chaise lounge with his feet propped up. Rumple envied him that careless nonchalance. ”She can get lost in any part of the maze, of course, but if you want to try and forget about her, she must be led to the Oubliette.”

The words rose like bile in his throat before he could stop them. ”And if I want her to forget about me?” 

Jareth smiled knowingly, crooked fang-like teeth hanging over his lips, and tossed one of the sparkling balls in his direction. It instantly turned into a bright pink peach, juicy and covered in soft fuzz. ”You already knew that answer to that, Dark One. Just as I already know that you’d never want her to forget.”

If his majesty were anyone else, his comment would’ve been followed by immediate death. But Rumple only nodded. For all that Jareth enjoyed playing with words (almost more than Rumple himself, in fact), he said nothing more or less than the blunt truth when he visited the Dark Castle. It was difficult to break his old habits, but Rumple tried to offer the king the same courtesy. Then again, they could both lie through their teeth and the truth would still be plain as day between them. The perils of being so similar, brothers of the best sort, connected not by blood but by horrible circumstances and the same taste in young women who had the power to destroy them in one sentence. 

“Perhaps not,” he admitted. ”But it helps to know all my options, dearie.”

Jareth tossed back his head, his wicked chuckle echoing around the walls. It was a theatrical gesture if ever he saw one, and Rumplestiltskin should know, much as he loved grand gestures himself. 

“Oh yes, the great Rumplestiltskin isn’t aware of all his options!”

Rumple glared at Jareth until his eyes turned black. His majesty’s face grew sober when he realized it wasn’t a joke. ”You really can’t see her future?”

Rumple shrugged. ”Not hers, not mine. Not Bae’s.”

Jareth hummed sympathetically. He too knew what it was like to hold a baby boy in his arms, one he was intent on loving and raising as his own, only to have him ripped away. 

“What a pity,” the king finally muttered. 

“Aye.”

A shrill yelp resounded outside, and, before Rumple could stop himself, he found himself braced on the windowsill and searching the sea of hedgerows below. Even from a distance, his Belle was beautiful, long brown hair swinging in the breeze, skin flushed from the violent cold. 

“If you think this will stop me, you’ve deluded yourself even more than I thought!” she shouted. “I will never, never, stop fighting for you!”

He wanted to run out there into the snow. Wanted to take her in his arms and hold her close, tell her that she didn’t have to fight because she’d already won him. Kiss her hard on those petal lips until his body blistered with human skin. 

That was just what she wanted, though. She wanted him to be a weak, blithering coward with no magic. And he couldn’t let that happen - no magic meant no Bae. Cowardice would only lead to her contempt. 

He twisted the path with a snap, and Belle fell into the hole of wandering hands, clawing at the opening as she tried to break free. Rumplestiltskin only glared, even when he felt the king step up beside him. 

“Your eyes can be so cruel. Just as I can be so cruel…”

“If you’re about to break into song, I swear -“

Jareth braced his hand on Rumple’s shoulder to cut him off. ”No songs. Just a warning, old friend.”

“A warning about what, dearie?” he sneered. ”Are you cutting our relationship to an end? What a pity, as you’d say - I never even got to see the goods.” Rumple released one of his twittering giggles and glanced down at Jareth’s pants. ”Well, perhaps that last bit isn’t entirely true.”

Normally, Jareth would’ve preened under the attention. On a bad day, he’d have shot a spell at Rumple that would leave his head reeling for hours. But today he did neither, and Rumple was smart enough to know that that couldn’t mean anything good.

“Hardly,” the king drawled sharply. ”It’s a warning about Belle. If she’s anything like my Sarah, she’ll be out of there in an hour at most.” He turned a wry smile to the green cloak flitting down the gap. ”And I’d never say this to anyone else, of course, but she seems a fair sight wiser than my Sarah.”

Rumple almost laughed again, if for no other reason than to release his mania. ”Well, she did try to go against you.” 

The Goblin King’s eyes dilated. ”She didn’t try - she succeeded. In her world, I am little more than a soulless barn owl.” He flourished his white feathered cape. ”What a pity.”

As the cloak fluttered back to the ground, a large floating clock fizzled into the air. Both hands were pointed at the number “13”.

Jareth sighed. ”Well, much as I’d love to stay and chat, I must be on my way. Things to do, kingdom to run.”

Rumple waved him off, eyes never leaving Belle in her struggle below. ”Yes, yes - you forget that I’ve had my fair share of dealings with royalty.”

The Goblin King gave him his first legitimate smile of the evening. ”None quite like me, though.”

Jareth’s words were cut off by another loud scream, this time begging the fingers to let her go. Rumple’s eyes fluttered shut, his soul (or what was left of it) clamping tight inside his chest. He knew he shouldn’t ask. He really shouldn’t. Voicing the question would only make things that much worse, and then he’d lose that small shred of hope that remained. 

He was apparently a glutton for punishment. 

“Sarah… you put her in the Oubliette?”

Jareth spun on his heel, facing him once more though his hand remained on the doorknob. ”She found it herself, but yes.”

Down below, Belle tried one last time to climb past the hands, and once again slipped into darkness. Rumplestiltskin’s heart broke. 

“But you never forgot her.”

For a mere moment, a fraction of a second, their eyes met across the cluttered tower - Jareth’s dark and wild and catlike, Rumple’s large and bronze. No one else would’ve noticed - maybe not even Rumplestiltskin if he hadn’t already known what to look for - but an ice blue tear flecked the fabric of the Goblin King’s tunic. That was all the answer Rumple needed. But he hung on the words regardless, resigned himself to his fate, when Jareth muttered,

“No. And I never will.”


End file.
